Science matters: the right chemistry found at Chemathon

A group of students all came together with one interest, science, more specifically chemistry. NH was represented by two teams of chemistry students who attended Chemathon on Saturday, April 27.

The Hawks level one team consisted of Taylor Mason, Jonathan Wu, Zach Graf, and Justin Kushyk and the level two team, Heather King, Jacob Huneke, Jamie Dayton, Sydney Altman, and Cindy Zhang have met once a week to prepare for their big competition.

The teams admit they have worked hard each week since January,focusing on a different topic to study and master.

According to the team members, competition day consisted of 8 events and the two teams in each level divided the events and each competed in 4 events.   

Head of chemathon, Mrs. Christine Jestel, says that the teams have only been competing for two years and placing even at all this new into the chemathon experience is very big.

During the competition on April 27 the level one team placed both first and second in two events out of 18 teams, according to Jestle. The team placed in a periodic table event and an acid/base event. The level two team competed against 16 other teams. All of the agree participants have worked hard to expand their scientific knowledge.

Students weighed in on their perspective and experiments of chemathon. Junior Sydney Altman enjoyed “working with friends and Mrs. Jestel.” Also adding it extends her “science knowledge outside of the classroom.” Altman also adds how she likes “meeting people all over Maryland,” which is a fun way to “break barriers.”

Junior Jacob Huneke recently joined the level two chemathon team. Huneke joined the team to help because they needed an extra set of hands for competition. He has enjoyed working “through many labs while hanging out with other people on the team.”

Junior Heather King has competed in chemathon for two years, this year on the level two team and last year on the level one team. King enjoys learning an “extension of the chemistry and physics” she’s learning now. She also adds that “it’s interesting to learn chemistry in a competitive environment.” She says Chemathon is “very beneficial” because it teaches you how to “better conduct experiments under pressure and about learning calculations well in a short period of time.”